Quinn in battle for Lenihan’s personal papers

Sean Quinn wants access to the personal documents of the late Brian Lenihan, Minister for Finance to prove the illegality of the loans advanced to him by Anglo Irish Bank.

Sean Quinn wants access to the personal documents of the late Brian Lenihan, Minister for Finance to prove the illegality of the loans advanced to him by Anglo Irish Bank.

Quinn was back in the High Court this week with his son Sean Quinn Jnr and nephew Peter Daragh Quinn to defend claims that he acted in breach of a court order.

IBRC, formerly Anglo Irish Bank claims the three Quinn businessmen breached court injunctions from Summer preventing the bank from gaining access to the assets. Peter Darragh Quinn has admitted there was a plan to put property assets in places like Russia and the Ukraine beyond the reach of the ban but he insisted this was before the court orders were in place.

The bank, which is trying to recover loans of €2.8 billion, alleges the Quinns backdated certain deals so it would appear the transactions occurred before the injunctions took effect.

According to national media, the former Anglo Irish Bank is embroiled in an estimated 40 legal actions across the world in the battle for control of the €500m overseas property empire owned by Sean Quinn.

The bank, is fighting legal actions in Russia, Ukraine, India, the British Virgin Islands, Belize as well as Ireland, in what is thought to be one of the most expensive debt recovery actions in Ireland’s history.

But the bigger story in all this is the battle for the late Brian Lenihan’s personal papers from his time as Minister for Finance.

The Quinn family have a mammoth legal action against the bank where they claim “gross illegality” on the part of Anglo Irish Bank. The family have sought discovery of thousands of documents including the Brian Lenihan papers to prove that a large part of the €2.8bn loans were advanced illegally to them. The Dail’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), also want to investigate the circumstances surrounding the controversial bank guarantee of September 2008 including meetings held before and after the decision and all those involved, contributed or informed of the gaurantee details, using Lenihan’s sensitive papers. The PAC is hoping that the documents will shed new light as to how the bank guarantee decision was reached.

IBRC wants the Quinns to pay for the documents they are requesting from them, the costs could be up to €1m. Quinn barristers said the bank was trying to “bleed the Quinns dry”, and to deter them from bringing to trial a case that would “expose the greatest corporate scandal in the history of the State”.

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